HUMPHREY, HUBERT (1911-1978)

South Dakota native Hubert Horatio Humphrey
was vice president of the United States
from 1965 to 1969 under President Lyndon B.
Johnson and served as U.S. senator from Minnesota
from 1949 to 1964 and again from 1971
to 1978. Born in Wallace, South Dakota, on
May 27, 1911, Humphrey was the second son
and namesake of a small-town drugstore
owner with roots traceable to New England
and England. His mother, Christine Sannes,
was of Norwegian descent, her father having
migrated from Norway to South Dakota in the
1880s. When Humphrey was six years old, the
family moved from Wallace to neighboring
Doland, where in 1929 he graduated from
Doland High School.

As a child, Humphrey enjoyed the security
and freedom of rural South Dakota. He played
in the open fields, watched for the arrival
of freight trains, sold newspapers after school,
and helped his father in the drugstore. When
African Americans migrated to the area for seasonal
road-building work, Humphrey made a
point to welcome them. This idyllic, carefree
childhood was shattered by the arrival of the
Great Depression, which forced his father to
sell their home to keep the drugstore in business.
By 1930 his father's business had failed,
and the family moved to the larger town of
Huron to begin again with another store.

Humphrey attended the University of Minnesota
in 1929 and 1930, but because of his
family's economic struggle, he left to work in
his father's drugstore. He dedicated the next
six years to his father's business, often working
without a salary. In 1933 he studied for several
intensive months at Denver's Capitol College
of Pharmacy to become a pharmacist. Still,
Humphrey was unhappy with the direction of
his professional life.

In 1936 Humphrey married Muriel Buck.
She supported his desire to go back to college.
With her financial and emotional support,
Humphrey returned to the University of Minnesota
in 1937, where he earned a bachelor's
degree in political science. In 1940 he earned a
master's degree from Louisiana State University.
He returned to Minnesota to pursue a
doctoral degree but was deflected by opportunities
to get involved in politics.

Humphrey had always expressed an interest
in politics. Because he was dynamic, gregarious,
and an excellent speaker, he engaged people's
attention. When he became director of a
federal workers' education program in Minnesota
in the 1940s, he established important
connections with the state's labor leaders and
made his first bid for mayor (which was unsuccessful).
In 1944 he facilitated a critical merger
of Minnesota's Farmer-Labor Party with the
Democratic Party, creating the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party and making it possible for
Democrats to win political office. In June 1945
Humphrey won the mayoral election in Minneapolis.
In 1948 he took his leadership in the
Democratic Party to the national level when he
successfully urged Democrats to adopt a civil
rights plank. In November of that year, Humphrey
successfully defeated incumbent Republican
Joseph Ball for a seat in the U.S. Senate.

As a senator, Humphrey was a cold war politician
who supported stringent anticommunist
legislation while also denouncing Sen.
Joseph McCarthy for attacking Communists,
or "red-baiting." Humphrey also paid special
attention to civil rights, labor, taxes, foreign
policy, and agriculture. Initially, Humphrey
faced much opposition from southern Democrats
for his outspokenness, especially on civil
rights. However, he became more pragmatic
with experience and especially benefited from
his friendship with Sen. Lyndon B. Johnson of
Texas. Importantly, after winning only incremental
gains for civil rights in the 1950s, he
secured Senate support for the landmark Civil
Rights Act of 1964.

Humphrey aspired to the presidency
throughout his political career. He sought the
vice presidency several times, believing this
to be a necessary step to the presidency. When
he succeeded as President Johnson's running
mate in 1964, however, Humphrey found himself
marginalized. Although placed in a humiliating,
subservient role–exclusion from National
Security Council meetings, for example
–Humphrey remained loyal to the president
and supported his Vietnam War policy. When
Johnson withdrew his candidacy for reelection
in 1968, Humphrey won the Democratic
Party's nomination. He lost to Republican
Richard Nixon by a substantial margin in the
electoral vote (301 to 191) but by a narrow
margin in the popular vote.

Humphrey returned to the U.S. Senate from
Minnesota in 1971 and won reelection in 1976.
He ran in the Democratic primaries for president
in 1972 but lost the nomination to South
Dakota senator George McGovern. A symbol
of postwar liberalism, Humphrey has gained
recognition for his commitment to civil rights.
He died of cancer in 1978 and was survived by
his wife, Muriel (who was appointed to complete
her husband's Senate term), four children,
and many grandchildren.

Linda Van Ingen
University of Nebraska at Kearney

Humphrey, Hubert H. The Education of a Public Man: My
Life and Politics. Garden City NY: Doubleday and Co.,
1976.